


What Was Lost

by orphan_account



Series: Pandora-verse [8]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Alien Planet, Arguing, Blood and Gore, Established Relationship, Horror, M/M, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 07:27:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21316429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Inspired by the myth of "The Tailypo." Set directly before and after "Bread and Circuses." Kirk, Spock, and McCoy uncover a deadly betrayal on an uncharted world. Slash.
Relationships: Leonard "Bones" McCoy/Spock
Series: Pandora-verse [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/950733
Kudos: 8





	What Was Lost

A screech pierced the night, with a rustling of branches following.

McCoy swung his head with a surprised exclamation as a massive winged animal, its leathery coat green and gold, flapped above him. Its eyes, bulging out from the tips of stalks, glowed down at him in the moonlight, and its jagged teeth were bared. It disappeared into the starry sky.

A flicker of amusement met him through his bond with Spock as the Vulcan commented, "It would seem that you have acquainted yourself with the local wildlife, doctor."

McCoy glared at him, brushing a hand through his hair. "I'd rather my manta rays remain underwater, thank you," he growled.

Ahead of them, Kirk and Moreau walked side by side, the latter measuring the strength of the distress call they had picked up on the Enterprise. Vasquez, a member of ship security, brought up the rear. It was a weak Federation signal from an uncharted class M planet claimed by the sender to be called Dido. The biome was arboreal, with the wildlife flapping through the vines, or stalking about on four legs.

"It should not be farther now," Moreau commented, reading the tricorder carefully. Kirk, meanwhile, glanced about, speculating over the towering structures in the distance. They were the discarded husks of buildings, made of stone and rusted metal, and were overcome with vines. Perhaps if this Federation party needed to land, this location had been a good idea, given that it had once been inhabited.

Moreau brushed a branch away from her face, and her breath caught. "Captain, look!"

Kirk glanced over and noticed the white tail of the shuttle sticking out the ground. A crude grave marker sat on a patch of dirt beside it. The party quickly made their way over to the vessel as the door opened. A lanky man with blonde hair, and wearing a tattered blue Starfleet uniform, stumbled out. "My signal! You got my signal?!" He cried, clutching to Kirk's uniform shirt.

"That's right," Kirk replied before introducing the party by their titles.

The man stared blearily at them, and McCoy moved up to take his arm. He helped him sit down and held out his canteen to him. The man gratefully took it as McCoy ran his tricorder over him. Immediately, he found that the man was malnourished. "Jim this man needs medical attention," McCoy said, turning his head to look at him, "He is underfed and dehydrated."

The man grasped McCoy's arm, causing McCoy to gasp as he was tugged over. Spock, however, detached the man's hand. "You need to get out of here! She'll kill you!"

"Who?" Kirk asked.

The man shook his head. "She killed Sena and took my captain! Oh no, no, no!" He waved his arms and tried to stand up to run off. McCoy, however, stood quickly and stopped him.

"Who is it you're talking about?" He asked, grasping hold of his shoulder, "And more importantly, who are you?"

"K-Kauffmann, Horst Kauffmann, sir. My captain is missing – our ship was struck by space debris, and we had to evacuate. Our shuttle landed here."

"Who is your captain?" Kirk asked.

"Crenshaw, sir." Kirk didn't shake his head, but the name didn't ring a bell. He was likely another graduate in his already large class.

"You have to understand, though! I didn't mean to eat Drexa! I-I, that is to say we, we had no choice!" Kauffmann slid down, clutching handfuls of dirt. "Don't let her kill me, please!" McCoy gently picked his hand off of the ground, and coaxed him to splay out his fingers, releasing the clump of dirt.

Realizing that he was getting nowhere with him, Kirk stepped backward, allowing Spock to move beyond him.

Spock held out his hand to Kauffmann's forehead, and carefully focused. Kauffmann's mind was adrift in madness and paranoid fear. Whatever had attacked him had clearly disturbed him. He was careful not to let it go too far into it, though McCoy did meet his eyes. He could feel Kauffmann's disturbance through their bond, though Spock snapped back on it. McCoy frowned at that, though he gave him a nod as he differed to his judgment.

Claws and teeth flashed across his mind, as did a hiss. There was betrayal, a tremendous guilt, and loss. Spock dropped his hand, and Kauffmann lay quietly, propped against the wall. Turning to Vasquez, he ordered, "Return him to the Enterprise." Vasquez nodded, and knelt beside Kauffmann. After he contacted the Enterprise, he and Kaufmann disappeared in a rush of energy.

"What does it mean, Mr. Spock?" Kirk asked as Spock smoothed his hand against his side, leading the way into the shuttle. McCoy and Moreau broke off to investigate the interior.

"There was a guide that this party had, a local feline," Spock began, taking his tricorder out, and entering the information, "a sentient being, whose language could be read by the translator. Fascinating."

"Can you get a description of the figure?" Kirk inquired, and Spock tapped a few controls on the computer.

"Working," the computer replied in a garbled voice, the distortion caused by short circuits in the system from exposure to the elements. Slowly, a figure of a massive cat, slim and with a head swinging to stare at the viewer, appeared. Its black form lithe, and its cold blue stare was calculating.

"I believe this is Drexa," Spock commented.

Kirk glanced the feline over. "Not bipedal, unlike the other feline lifeforms we've seen, but sentient." It little surprised him, given that some of his former classmates didn't walk upright, while others used tentacles or pseudopods, "I'd be interested to learn more about her, especially given how the cities are in ruins."

Spock experimented with the controls while approaching footsteps drew Kirk's attention. Moreau and McCoy appeared to him, a soiled purple piece of fruit in his hand, and Moreau tapping on a PADD. "The food stores were depleted a while ago," McCoy commented. Shaking his head, he continued, "The crew was biting into the packets, and the vitamin capsules are empty."

"Why didn't they eat the vegetation?" Kirk asked.

McCoy held up the fruit. "It's toxic to consume. I scanned over it and found traces of similar pesticides to those used during Earth's twentieth century embedded in it. The medical kit was empty."

"That explains the empty buildings," Kirk commented, moving toward the doorway, and placing his hand on it to stare outward, "I'm not sure which it was, war, or an experiment gone wrong? The pesticides must have poisoned the entire food supply."

McCoy set down the fruit. "The wildlife must've built up some immunity to it. The food chain's still going."

"Unless the chemicals are non-toxic to them to start with," Kirk commented, tapping moodily against the frame, "Which throws my theory out the window. Regardless, we have two missing people on this planet."

"And possibly delirious, at that," McCoy added.

From behind him, Spock rose from the control panel. "You are partially correct, doctor," he commented as the three drew close around him. Paging through the text, he commented, "The data was badly fragmented however I was able to salvage parts of it."

The first entry, what could be read of it, was dictated by Captain Crenshaw. The entry was solemn, and quiet, fearing that the other members of his crew had been lost in an attack by Orion pirates. Moreau's hair stood on end at that, and she met her captain's eyes. Kirk gave her a reassuring smile and backed away from the conversation to send a communication to Sulu to ready the Enterprise to leave soon, in the case that it was unknowingly drifting in Orion territory.

The second and third entries showed a devolution in the writing, the writer expressing pain from eating the local fruit, and fearing that they would run out, and switch to barbarism.

The fourth, however, detailed a first contact, albeit one told in almost a religious tone, given Crenshaw's delirium. He described a big cat coming down from on high to help them find food. She was kind and could speak translatable language. Drexa, the entry described, came from a race of sentient cats, who dwelled in the cave region, and scavenged the remains of the nearby cities' inhabitants. A fourth crewman, Polonsky, was stated to be interviewing her about her species while Sena and Kauffmann checked the cities for food. The coordinates to Drexa's residence, a local cave, were marked on a mini map of the area.

The remaining entries, however, were bleak. The salvaged food hadn't been preserved properly, causing Polonsky to become sick from botulism, and die. Crenshaw's internal monologue made Moreau walk away, not wanting to read anymore, as he began to consider the implications of cannibalism.

McCoy winced at that, his nausea plain to feel to Spock, who held up a hand. Spock was careful not to allow an emotion of disgust to cloud his judgment, else there would be no coming out of it. Polonsky's epitaph was the sparse notes he had collected on Drexa's species, that being they were clans of big cats who roamed nomadically across the landscape. Drexa herself lived alone, having suffered from a recent miscarriage of cubs. Crenshaw cynically wondered as to whether Drexa considered herself his party's "mother," and stated that she had clearly failed in that self-chosen duty.

The next entries became accusing, stating that Drexa had to have led them there on purpose – that food was too old to be eaten, anyway. Crenshaw figured that Drexa was just trying to kill them and have them as her next meal. He also expressed his doubts as to whether she was lying about the miscarriage, given how she refused to be inspected up close.

McCoy made a frustrated comment at that, "She literally has just met humans, and he wants to know if she really lost her kids?"

The entry ended with the concern over the crew wanting to eat, and a resolution to go hunting, with no other choice. "We eat tonight," the entry ended.

Kirk and Moreau returned, and Spock brought them up to speed on the remaining entries. Kirk grimaced, but decided, "We'll speak to Drexa, and see if she knows anything. After that, however, we need to leave."

They quickly departed the area, but not without Kirk stopping to pick a wildflower growing near the area and laying it over Polonsky's grave.

The path twisted toward an abandoned building, its structure dome-like and cracked. An empty lens stuck out of it. Kirk noted, however, that no door led into the observatory, but there rungs were upon which to climb. Beyond it stood an outcropping, with a hollowed-out cave past a glen.

Sprawled against the building was a human woman, or what remained of her. Her black hair hung loosely, and she wore the tattered remains of a red yeoman's uniform. Her head hung at a painful angle, while her legs were twisted. A hole was ripped through her stomach, though her hand wasn't splayed close to it. McCoy darted over her and knelt before her. He grasped her chin, and gently tugged her up. Spock noted, quietly, that he didn't feel any trace of hope in his mate that the woman might still be alive as he ran his tricorder over her. Rather, the only hope that McCoy did have was that she had died quickly, in order to be afforded that mercy.

"We've found Sena," McCoy commented, "Her legs and spine were crushed by being hurled against this rock. The stomach wound was postmortem." He paused, scanning over her teeth, and his eyes widened. He glanced back over his shoulder. "She's eaten meat recently. There's a toxin in her system, as well."

"The fruit," Moreau commented.

Kirk glanced up at the cave, set deeply into the rock face, and partially hidden behind thick trees. "We'll continue inside to find Crenshaw. Should anything happen, return to the Enterprise." At their nods, he led the way in.

A heavy plodding noise echoed out at them, and Kirk exchanged a glance with Spock before continuing in.

A massive feline was limping around, her black fur clumped with dust from the cave floor and stuck with greens from a sort of large nest. The cave was shaped like a funnel, with rock walls arranged as if they were shelves flanking her living area. White claw marks indicated that she had made them. Meat lay partially concealed in skins and scavenged metal, and stunk. Moonlight seeped in through cracks in the rock higher up. Shiny objects, such as glass lenses and metal plates adorned the area, casting glints that pierced the chamber in pale splotches from the moonlight. Kirk surmised that the chamber must have glistened during the day. Her blue eyes flashed in the change of light direction as she lay down. What caught the away team's attention, however, was her rear end. McCoy scowled. "They ate her tail." The stump swung listlessly at the air.

"Then that explains Yeoman Sena," Kirk surmised quietly. He carefully moved forward, and turned his head to glance over his shoulder, "Go up on the rock wall, so she can't see you."

"Jim, you can't be serious!" McCoy hissed.

"I would agree with the doctor," Spock commented, "It will be easy for you to be lost, Captain, if you remain before her long."

Jim nodded. "Got it, no more than ten minutes. Now get moving."

The group broke off, and Kirk walked slowly toward Drexa.

Drexa, stirred, and rose shakily, her body listing against a wall. "Human," she hissed, her voice strained by pain.

Kirk held his pistol to the side as a warning. "I come in peace, Drexa, unless circumstances dictate otherwise."

Her blue eyes, glazed with pain, gave a hint of narrowing. "How do you know my name? You're with that shuttle crew, aren't you? Liars, all of them! I thought there were only four!" Her fur stood up as she arched her back.

"There were," Kirk affirmed, "but we picked up their distress beacon. I am Captain James T. Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise."

"Captain!" She snarled, pawing at a loose rock, which bounced loose. It stopped near Kirk's feet, and he realized that it was a human skull. "I've had enough of captains! They lie!"

Kirk glanced up from the skull. "You have only met one."

"He took my tail!" She snapped, "I helped him and his crew find food, and he took my tail! They all did!" She scraped her claws on the rock floor, causing sparks to fly, and hissed, "When I kill the last one, I'll have it back!"

Kirk shook his head. "But that won't change anything. I deeply apologize for what was done to you, Drexa. Please, let me help you."

"I don't trust you humans! All you do is take things! You are cruel!"

Kirk held out a hand to her. "What if we wish to give you something?"

"You give nothing! Get out!" She growled, her agony rippling as an undertone.

McCoy stared down at the large feline. "If she's allowed to remain like that, she will get sick." Any quips that would have been made immediately died in his mind at the senseless violence inflicted upon the feline. The botched first contact attempt was horrific. That being said, the less time spent near Drexa was for the best. He glanced toward the skin near him, and suppressed a shudder, not wanting to think where Drexa might have stored Sena's, or for that matter, Crenshaw's, internal organs.

"Are you ready, doctor?" Spock asked.

McCoy glanced up. "As I'll ever be," his eyes narrowed, as he watched Spock exchange a glance with Moreau, "wait, what are you planning?"

"We will need a decoy. The captain will not suffice," Spock explained, gesturing down at Kirk. The feline was watching him with suspicious eyes as he continued to attempt to placate her.

"If you truly are explorers, then why come here?" She snarled, rolling slightly on her side. The pain was continuing to get the better of her, Kirk noted as he attempted to wear her down with words.

"We want to meet sentient life. In essence, we want to meet you," he replied gently.

Drexa rolled back over at that, however the motion was too quick. She screeched with the pain, and curled in on herself, swiping at the air. "My tail! My tail!" She buried its head against her leg and began to mewl, "I don't want to meet you! Go away; you'll hurt me too!"

"It is entirely possible that, if left to her own devices, it will be better for her mentally," Spock commented as they carefully scaled the outcropping, "She is clearly disturbed by our presence."

"We can't leave her to suffer," McCoy replied firmly.

Spock shook his head. "I was not implying anything of the sort, rather I was attempting to direct a different tactic. Stay close to us, doctor. We will need you in the case of failure. Yeoman Moreau?"

She raised her dark eyes to look at him, a look of genuine concern on her face. She nodded, scrambling the rest of the way down. McCoy narrowed his eyes at Spock. "Spock, what're you doing?"

"Doctor, I gave you a direct order. Please remain behind me."

McCoy gnashed his teeth as Moreau advanced, her phaser pistol at the ready. They had planned this up there while McCoy's attention had been divided by Drexa's pain, leaving McCoy as backup. "Spock, you're going to get her killed! Call her back!"

Spock kept his back to him as he slowly moved down after her. "Moreau knows the risk. We will need the distraction in order to tranquilize Drexa."

"Need I remind you how many people we have already lost in almost two years?" McCoy hissed.

"Would you leave her like this, doctor?" Spock asked, turning to face him, and throwing his words back at him.

Frustrated anger burned from McCoy. He knew that Spock had him. "Fine, but don't lose her. We've had enough deaths on the crew."

Spock turned away from him and continued down. Drexa's eyes lit on Moreau, and she swiped her claw toward her. Moreau jumped back as the creature snapped, "I said LEAVE ME ALONE!" Kirk nodded at Moreau, and the two backed slowly up, interchanging their steps to criss-cross. "STOP PLAYING TRICKS ON ME!" She snapped. "YOU HURT ME! HAVEN'T YOU DONE ENOUGH?!"

"Now, doctor," Spock whispered. Reaching for their phasers, both men fired. With a gasp, Drexa fell in a heap, stunned. McCoy ran for her limp form, already fumbling in his medical bag.

McCoy glanced carefully over the wound as he worked. Due to his lack of familiarity with her race, he knew that he could do little more than a patch job to prevent infection – any attempts to regenerate her tail could damage her spine. While he was careful to not awaken her, or harm her further, he was curious about her build, and was careful to enter the data into his medical scanner. He doubted heavily that Drexa would be interacted with again by the Federation, and that was just as well.

Standing, he commented, "The sedative will wear off in an hour. She's safe here, in her cave. Hopefully this is a good enough apology."

"Speaking realistically, doctor, this creature will not recall what you have done. Its impression will remain as it is," Spock corrected him.

McCoy glared at Spock, but was silent as he said, "Enterprise, four to beam up. Energize."

XXXXXX

M'Benga turned at the sound of the door to sickbay opening.

McCoy wasn't surprised at the grave expression that his colleague wore, but nevertheless, a small part of him had hoped for a different outcome. "How did he die?" He asked, indicating Kauffmann's prone form, which Nurse Chapel was draping with a sheet. Restraints lay on a nearby table and had a sheen of sweat on them. The Enterprise had left Dido behind and was clearing the area at warp six.

"He had several toxins in his body, as if he had been eating pesticides for several days," M'Benga explained. Shaking his head, he picked up a hypospray from a nearby tray. "I had to tranquilize him due to his erratic behavior. He was raving about someone named Drexa and said that he had eaten her."

She would never get her tail back, McCoy noted silently, wondering bitterly if Spock was satisfied with his conjectures about the uncivilized behaviors of humans being proved correct in this isolated instance.

Wishing not to speak to him, McCoy closed his side of their bond, and set to work with drawing up the autopsy alongside his staff.

XXXXXX

"Why, you wouldn't know what to do with a genuine, warm, decent feeling," McCoy hissed, clutching to a bar of the cell he shared with Spock in his frustration. He was beyond exhausted with arguing with Spock, and now he owed him his life. Spock would be able to hold that over him in their next bout.

And that was the sad part. He realized how futile it was becoming. He was banging his head against the wall when it came to his interactions with Spock, and it was wearing him down. "Must you be so blasted honest?!" He had snapped at him earlier, as Spock had only served to dig them deeper into their predicament. McCoy wasn't sure whether they would make it out alive of this one – the concept of battling on camera was ludicrous until he was subjected to it.

Even then, Spock didn't forsake him, in sensing his distress and acting to save him. And so, McCoy spat acid at him. He was infuriated at being on this damn planet, where violence was not only a rule of law, but was also encouraged in polite society. He hated that his own friend was far from his grasp. Looking back on it, he was angrier with the fact that he owed Spock.

"Really, doctor?" McCoy felt annoyance rise in him as Spock stared at him, point blank. He knew that Spock had him beaten there. He felt it in their bond that Spock did, in fact, harbor emotions, namely in this situation, for him.

However, he chose to redirect the conversation. "I know, I'm worried about Jim, too."

Spock merely gave a nod of acknowledgement, and McCoy knew that he hadn't won that argument. He glanced away from him and stared out past the bars. This world that they had landed on frustrated him. Centuries of war and enslavement, and for what, a shallow display of strength? It could only lead in one direction.

Choosing to change the subject, McCoy asked, "You think they'll make it, in the passing centuries? Can they move beyond this violence?"

"That is contingent upon whether those who were enslaved can make their message understood, and not simply heard," Spock replied simply, "As with mankind, as well as the Vulcan race, the need to avoid self-destruction will force the hand."

"You can't think that someone can just 'get better?'" McCoy challenged.

"Logically speaking, there are too many examples, notwithstanding individuals, of societies only adapting to change out of necessity. While I understand your faith, doctor, it is not warranted," Spock corrected him.

"I forgot, faith isn't logical," McCoy scoffed.

"When it is ill-placed, doctor," Spock corrected, turning away from him.

McCoy glanced up as he sensed a small warmth through their bond: hope. And he knew that it was directed at Kirk. Pointing at his turned back, he said, "Then you remember how you aren't walking away from faith." Standing, he left him to sit back on the bunk.

XXXXXX

"Are you expecting a hero's welcome?" McCoy asked sarcastically as Spock entered his quarters. A drink was beside him on the table, and he was a little annoyed at being stopped from indulging in it.

"I would not consider myself such, therefore I do not desire it," Spock replied plainly.

McCoy shook his head at him. "Sometimes I think you are being literal just to annoy me."

"Perhaps I would have used the same rationale for your stating the word 'logic' so often on that planet," Spock replied evenly.

McCoy scowled and gestured at his bar. "Drink?"

"No, thank you."

"So then, what brings you here? Can't be wanting to see my smiling face after the away mission," McCoy commented.

"Would it bewilder you if I said that it was something of a similar vein?" Spock questioned.

McCoy blinked at that. "I'm sorry?"

"I was not expecting to see a blade at your neck," Spock commented quietly, placing his hand over the back of a nearby chair.

McCoy's eyes widened as he slowly registered just a hint of fear within Spock. He sighed, "Look, Spock, about that planet, I was being an ass, I'll admit it. It almost got me killed."

"That most concerns me."

"It didn't happen, though," McCoy replied, tapping his hand against the table, "and I'll try not to let it happen again."

After a pause, Spock commented, "You have a shorter lifespan than I, t'hy'la. I know that that concerns you."

McCoy sighed, knowing that he'd been caught. "Yeah, I know, I know. I've gotten close to you, and I don't want to leave you behind. You wouldn't know what to do without me, anyway."

"Based upon past experience, Leonard, I can advise that the reverse is often the case," Spock returned, "but thank you."

McCoy brushed his fingers against Spock's, and said, "Bed's open tonight, if you care to know."

Spock placed his other hand over McCoy's. "While I appreciate the invitation, I have a few matters that require my attention." With a nod, Spock dropped their hands. "Doctor." He departed abruptly, the door closing behind him.

McCoy shook his head and took a long sip of his drink. He'd had enough of that planet to last him a lifetime.

While Spock didn't join him that night, McCoy was awakened by his computer going off. Sitting down at it, he yawned and grumbled, running his hand through his hair as he saw that it was a file sent from Spock. The file contained a page on a Roman Centurion named Sebastian, as well as notes on his lifetime, particularly with his conversion to a different faith.

McCoy smirked, and sent back a typed message, "If this is your attempt at a love letter, Spock, then thanks, love you too."

The reply was immediate. "It was an answer to your question."

Leaning back in his chair, McCoy laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Notes: "The Tailypo" is an Appalachian myth about a creature whose tail was cut off by a hunter, who eats it. Later, the creature returns, and wants his tail back. Needless to say, he does get it…This was also a story to explain McCoy's antagonizing Spock at the beginning of "Bread and Circuses." Sebastian is a martyr and saint in Christian belief, as well as a popular gay icon. Kirk going to Starfleet Academy with non-bipedal lifeforms is a nod to My Enemy, My Ally by Diane Duane. Polonsky, Kauffmann, Sena, Drexa, and Crenshaw are my characters. Planet Dido is my creation.


End file.
